LaMarcus Aldridge scored 25 points, Rudy Gay added 22 and the San Antonio Spurs held on to give coach Gregg Popovich another milestone victory in a 116-113 win against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night.

Tony Parker took the court amid chants of "To-ny, To-ny, To-ny" in his first return to San Antonio since leaving for Charlotte. He later applauded the fans. "It was a great memory for me that I will cherish for the rest of my life," he said.

DeRozan spins around Parker for layup (0:24)

Michael C. Wright ESPN Staff Writer

James Borrego on Tony Parker's resilience: "Chasing championship after championship, I think people were always pointing at Tony as the reason why maybe we didn't get it done, or that we could do better than Tony Parker. But every year he kept coming back, and getting better and proving to people that he was the right point guard for San Antonio. And he never wavered from that. He never doubted himself. He just kept coming back and proving it. I think he credits Pop a lot for pushing him to being the player he is today. He's doing the same thing with these young guys. He's taking on that role, and taking everything he learned in San Antonio, and what he's been for the Spurs, and he's applying it now to Charlotte. And these guys are feeling it. I'm happy for him. I think he's in a role where he's helping us on the floor when he's off the floor. To me, that brings great purpose to who you are. There's nothing like helping somebody else. For a long time in San Antonio, Tony was just worried about his job. And he couldn't really see the mentorship role. But I think he's finding great fulfillment now in helping on the court, but also mentoring and helping these young guys grow and get better."

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Michael C. Wright ESPN Staff Writer

More James Borrego on Tony Parker: “He's so precise. He's calculated, and he's composed. He's just been doing this for so long that he's comfortable in the moment. You can't rush him. You can't speed him up. He's just comfortable leading the group. And that's hard to find because not every point guard is a leader, not every point guard has poise. A lot of times, the point guards right now in our NBA are just great athletes, they're great scorers, they can go make plays. But they're not necessarily running an offense, you know? There's a difference between someone that can run an offense and be an extension of a coach. There's a major difference between that, and just a point guard that can go score and get buckets. Those are two very different things. Tony has clearly over time become a leader on the floor, and extension of Pop, an extension of the head coach, and he's a leader on the floor. That doesn't always happen with every point guard. And I think Tony's been one of these guys… the one thing I'll say about Tony is he's been one of the most resilient players I've ever been around.”

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Michael C. Wright ESPN Staff Writer

Even James Borrego thought it was weird to see Tony Parker in a Hornets uniform. Here's what he had to say: “It was strange early on. Even the first couple weeks of open gym and practice, just to see him in a different uniform was strange. Here I am as a head coach, and now he's one of our point guards, that was surreal to me. I think when it really sunk in was an early game, the first game of the year against Milwaukee, where he had a good game. In the fourth quarter, I had a decision to make: to leave him on the floor with Kemba and pull him and leave Kemba as the point guard. My instinct just said, ‘He's done this before. He's closed before. I trust him.' That was the first realization that Tony is ours, he belongs here, and I trust him.”